1 This, first of all, I ask; that petition, prayer, entreaty and thanksgiving should be offered for all mankind, 2 especially for kings and others in high station, so that we can live a calm and tranquil life, as dutifully and decently as we may.[1] 3 Such prayer is our duty, it is what God, our Saviour, expects of us, 4 since it is his will that all men should be saved, and be led to recognize the truth; 5 there is only one God, and only one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, who is a man, like them, 6 and gave himself as a ransom for them all. At the appointed time, he bore his witness, 7 and of that witness I am the chosen herald, sent as an apostle (I make no false claims, I am only recalling the truth) to be a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.[2]

8 It is my wish that prayer should everywhere be offered by the men; they are to lift up hands that are sanctified, free from all anger and dispute.[3] 9 So, too, with the women; they are to dress themselves modestly and with restraint in befitting attire; no plaited hair, no gold ornaments, or pearls, or rich clothes; 10 a virtuous life is the best adornment for women who lay claim to piety. 11 Women are to keep silence, and take their place, with all submissiveness, as learners; 12 a woman shall have no leave from me to teach, and issue commands to her husband; her part is to be silent. 13 It was Adam that was created first, and Eve later, 14 nor was it Adam that went astray; woman was led astray, and was involved in transgression. 15 Yet woman will find her salvation in child-bearing, if she will but remain true to faith and love and holy living.[4]

[2] vv. 1-7: It is possible that the false teachers at Ephesus, if they were Jews, may have been influenced by the unpopularity of Roman rule in Judaea, so as to preach disloyalty to the Empire; perhaps, too, they refused to recognize that the gospel was offered to the whole of mankind.

[3] St Paul is probably teaching here that women are to abstain from offering public prayer, as well as from teaching (in the sense of giving instructions at public worship).

[4] The Latin here has ‘in the birth of children’; but the text as given in the Greek makes it equally possible to follow Theophylact (as several non-Catholic commentators do), and translate ‘in the Child-bearing’. Woman, here considered as a single race, has been re-established since the fall of Eve by the obedience of the Blessed Virgin, as is commonly recognized by the Church from St Irenaeus onwards. ‘If she will but remain’ is ‘if they will but remain’ in the Greek; the plural being substituted for the singular to shew that the statement is made about womanhood generally.